Asus is the latest manufacturer to develop a gaming-focused smartphone. Here's all we know about the Asus ROG smartphone, from announcement date to predicted specs.

Asus is the latest manufacturer to develop a gaming-focused smartphone. Here's all we know about the Asus ROG smartphone so far.

2018 is the year that mobile gaming started being taken seriously by manufacturers and developers alike. As well as bringing the likes of Fortnite and PUBG to mobile, manufacturers like Razer, Xiaomi and Asus are bringing game-focused smartphones to the market with the Razer Phone, Xiaomi Blackshark and now, the Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) smartphone.

The Asus ROG smartphone is set to be announced in June 2018 at Computex; here’s everything we know about the game-centric smartphone so far.

When will the Asus ROG smartphone be released?

While we’re still not quite sure of the release date, a Geeksnipper report citing Taiwan insiders claims that Asus is planning to launch a ROG-branded gaming-focused smartphone at Computex 2018, at some point between 5-9 June 2018.

While that would usually mean it’d go on sale soon afterwards, Asus doesn’t have the strongest track record when it comes to UK releases. Let’s take the Asus ZenFone AR as an example; the phone was announced at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, but didn’t go on sale in the UK or the US until seven months later in August 2017.

It’s a similar story with the Asus ZenFone 5Z; the smartphone was revealed at MWC 2018 in Feburary, but the smartphone is yet to launch in the UK with Asus only stating that it’ll be available “later this year”.

With that being said, Asus could announce the smartphone in June at Computex and release it later on this year when (we assume) Razer launches a second-gen Razer Phone. The two companies are direct competitors, after all.

How much will the Asus ROG smartphone cost?

While Geeksnipper could provide us with a rough launch window, the Taiwan-based insiders couldn’t provide any information about pricing. Judging by previous Asus launches, we may not even hear about pricing at the official launch of the ROG smartphone – Asus tends to announce pricing nearer to release.

What we can do is look at the Razer Phone, arguably the Asus ROG smartphone’s biggest competitor. The Razer Phone’s 120Hz display, stereo speaker output and rapid processor make it the dream smartphone for gaming, and we imagine that Asus will offer something similar with the ROG smartphone.

With that being said, we predict that the Asus ROG smartphone will cost a similar amount to the Razer Phone, around £595 in the UK.

We will, of course, update this section with more accurate pricing once Asus announces it.

What will the Asus ROG smartphone feature?

The biggest focus is on what the Asus ROG smartphone will offer, and while we don’t yet know specifics, the ROG branding suggests that it’ll have a focus on gaming.

That focus allows us to predict what kind of features to expect from the smartphone, including a display with a high refresh rate – 120Hz to compete with the Razer Phone, or possibly even 144Hz to match high-end PC monitors. We could even see the use of an updated 18:9 display, compared to the standard 16:9 display on offer by Razer.

Along with a high-end display, we imagine that it’ll boast Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chipset with 6- or 8GB of RAM to provide a lag-free gaming experience on-the-go.